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Mills, Samuel John (2)

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Mills, Samuel John (1)

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Mills, Thornton a., D.D.

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popularly called the "Father of Foreign Mission Work in Christian America," an efficient minister of the Congregational Church, was the son of the minister of Torrington, Conn., and was born April 21, 1783. He was educated at Williams College (class of 1809). He next entered the theological seminary, having decided to preach the Gospel, and while at school in Andover his mind was deeply impressed with the importance of foreign missions, and he endeavored to awaken a similar feeling in the hearts of his fellow-students. He united with Judson, Newell, Nott, and Hall in a resolution to undertake a foreign mission.

In 1812 and 1813 he and J.F. Schermerhorn made a missionary tour in the Western States. He was ordained, with other missionaries, at Newburyport, June 21,1815. He ascertained in March, 1815, that not a Bible could be found for sale or to be given away in New Orleans; he thereupon distributed many Bibles in French and English, and visited the sick soldiers. Finding that seventy or eighty thousand families at the South and West were destitute of a Bible, he suggested at the close of his report the formation of a national society like the British. His efforts contributed to the establishment of the American Bible Society, May 8, 1816. The plan of the United Foreign Mission Society, which, however, accomplished but little, originated with him while residing with Dr. Griffin at Newark, N.J., as did also the African school, which existed a few years at Parsippany, near Newark. He attended the first meeting of the Colonization Society, January 1, 1817, which was established by his and Dr. Finley's exertions, and Mills was at that time appointed, together with Dr. Burgess, to visit England, and explore the coast of Africa for the society. He sailed in November 1817, and in a wonderful manner escaped shipwreck on the coast of France. He sailed from England for Africa February 2, 1818, and arrived on the coast March 12. After a laborious inspection of more than two months, he embarked on his return in the brig Success, May 22, 1818. A severe cold, which he took early in June, was succeeded by a fever, and he died at sea, June 16, 1818. He was buried in the depths of the ocean. See Spring, Memoirs of John Samuel Mills (N.Y. 1820, 8vo); Sprague, Annals Amer. Pulpit, 2:566; Cyclop. Missions, page 263 sq.; Anderson, Hist. Missions of A. B. For. M. in India (1874).